Harry Otter

Moonbeam

2/27/2024 11:42pm

Spaz took The Therianthrope for a trip around the island to look for Big Bulldog.

I had a bad feeling about it. I hadn't known the big weredog for that long, but the one thing that was clear was that he was a leader. He wouldn't just wander off and abandon his mission -- the emancipation of shapeshifting people of every... shape. He had a clear sense of purpose, and wouldn't just--

"Captain?" asked one of the rats. They had been learning to mimic our speech. I hadn't been called captain before.

"Some of the Mischief found a tunnel," it said. "Smells of bulldog there."

"Take me to it," I said.

Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

7/26/2023 11:31pm

The rats scampered across the verdant, flower covered hills.

"Happy to be on dry land again," I said.

"And thirsty as all get out," Big Bulldog said.

The Therianthrope was mooring next to the Moonbeam back near the shoreline. Blue sky with some clouds and cool ocean breezes.

"Squeeeeee!!!" squealed a group of rats in a copse of trees in the distance. All the other rats raced towards it.

"Found a spring," Big Bulldog said. "I could smell it from here."

With a source for freshwater, and all the fish we'd caught along the way (much of it drying in the Moonbeam's rigging) we were set to continue our search for the Mermaid Imperium. Equally lucky, there was no sign of our pursuers on the horizon.

"Still smelling that Mermaid Imperium on the breeze?" I asked. I was sure Big Bulldog couldn't really smell it.

"Yes, but..." he snorfled through is big wet snout and raised the folds over his right eye, "there's another scent. Big and musky. Can't see how I missed it before..."

The island shook with a small shudder under our feet. Great. It was geologically unstable.

"Time to get the casks down and start rolling them over to the spring," I said. "Maybe you could get some rats to help?"

Big Bulldog just stood there, snorfling at the air, his nose and saliva running.


This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

1/3/2023 11:47pm

Nothing but ocean. For days.

"Don't you worry your flappy tail," Big Bulldog said. "I know we're headed in the right direction for the Mermaid Imperium. I can smell 'em!"

We were peering over the bow of the Moonbeam, wind shields open to the bridge.

"I think that's just how the ocean smells," I said. "You know? Salt, seaweed, fish..."

"You don't have quite the acute olfactory powers as Big Bulldog," Big Bulldog said, tapping his snout with a dewclaw and squeezing a wink out of the rest of the folds in his face.

Lord.

Meanwhile, @Spaz Skunk arrived with a new net full of half drowned rats.

"You'd think they'd learn," I said.

"There are fewer and fewer each time. I guess it doesn't hurt we miss a few."

I looked at Spaz in horror.

"Just kidding," Spaz said. "I'm pretty sure we've caught all of them so far. But they're getting smarter, I can feel it."

The rats in the rigging chittered and laughed.

"But, it also means more sardines for all of us!" Spaz added. Each net full of rat crew members that had fallen off the Moonbeam also brought a small load of fish. We were set for food, but the fresh water was getting low. And I didn't think that would would be something mermaids would necessarily have in abundance.

"Hey," Spaz added. "So we got a name for the ship. The Therianthrope. Pretty on the nose, don't you think?"

If only I knew what that meant.

"Sure," I answered. "So, now that you've got your own name, maybe you could get your own ship's log too?"

Spaz said he'd think about it.


Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

7/29/2022 7:38am

"A mermaid imperium?" Spaz Skunk asked.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "But the big bulldog-headed guy is real set on it. It's the only reason he set me free."

"We do need somewhere to go, and in a hurry. I've got trouble on my tail too."

The ship Spaz Skunk arrived in looked like a floating palace from the Arabian nights. Or an old movie theater in the Thief of Baghdad style. And there were pieces of wood and plaster dangling off it.

"Well it does look stolen," I said. "Do you have a name for it?"

"A name? Not yet. Been in too much of rush, I guess. Speaking of which, we do need to get going as soon as possible."

"But what about @Captain Jack Fenris?" I asked. "And @Strange Katz? They've got to be around here somewhere. We can't just leave them."

"I don't think we have a choice," Spaz said, looking at the horizon to the east. "I guess they've got till we get unmoored and airborne. We can always come back later."

Spaz Skunk wasn't fooling around.

"Alright!" I called to the rats. "Get ready to cast off!"

Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

2/20/2022 10:01pm

I didn't know a thing about finding mermaids. Much less an entire mermaid empire. But there was one simple thing that had to be true.

"To the sea!" I cried, and Big Bulldog barked a laugh and pounded his paw on the counter, and the little big eyed tarsiers chittered in approval, and there were some smaller, squirrel-like creatures doing cartwheels.

"To the sea!" Big Bulldog cried and pounded his paw one more time and stood and led us all out of his tiny shop and around the corner to a great, wide well, with stairs built into the curve of the wall.

"To the sea!" Big Bulldog cried again, and the herd of tiny pseudo-bipedal mammals began to leap off the walls of the well and deep into its depths, accompanied by tiny splashes.

"The Rats will see us there on their ships! With you at the wheel and me at your side, we will find the Mermaid Imperium and be free!"

And with a broad slap on the back, he hurled me into the well.


This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

11/1/2021 10:39pm

"You're one of those fishy ones, ain't cha?"

It was the biggest bulldog-headed man I'd ever seen, standing behind the counter in his decrepit wooden shop.

"Fishy, uh, no sir. I mean, I like fish, and shellfish, but I haven't really eaten any seafood for quite some time. And how do you know my language?"

"ENOUGH!" Big Bulldog replied, smashing his big paw on the counter. "I mean you're one of those changeroos, a shifter, like me!"

Big Bulldog scrunched his face and looked like he was trying to force out a big poop. Suddenly his features morphed, and instead of the biggest bulldog-headed man I'd ever seen was one of the biggest ugliest men I'd ever seen.

"Change! Change back! I can't take it!!!!" I cried.

Big Bulldog changed back into his previous form.

"Well, in my defense, I've never heard it called 'fishy' before," I said.

"ENOUGH!" Big Bulldog hollered again, and slammed his big paw on the counter. Didn't he have another 'signature move' or was this it? "There's scarce few of us left here, on the land, hunted and captured for HER entertainment. But we've heard of others, from far away. Our ancient cousins, who left the land to escape the tyranny of these dust dwelling devils. The ones that took to the seas."

"You mean, people like... us... who can change form from human to animal, but change into fish?"

"EXACTLY!" Big Bulldog yelled, slamming his big paw on the counter.

"So, like, fish wearing clothes, and riding bicycles and going to shops?"

"EXACT-- well, I suppose it wouldn't make much sense for them to be wearing clothes, underwater would it?" Big Bulldog asked.

"It does sound like it would weigh them down. Certainly make them more vulnerable to predators."

"Well, still, there is a land for people like us, but underwater."

"Really?"

"Yes," Big Bulldog replied. "It's called the Mermaid Imperium. And you're going to help us find it."


Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

8/2/2021 11:07pm

The cute little big eyed tarsier pressed the knife harder into my shin.

"Okay! Okay little fella, you just hold on there..."

He gave it a poke and I leaped back on one foot, into an alley.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

The tarsier leapt on its hind legs and followed me, brandishing the knife.

What kind of world was it where such wild beasts roamed? Not only was this one armed, but mute as well. In another world--my world--we could have been fast friends, or at least had a discussion. I could tell that this creature was of the non-speaking, unintelligent variety. Because it wore no clothes--a savage. What world breed such silent, vicious, furry creatures?

At the end of the alley was a ramshackle door with a sign above it. ᏗᎦᏗᏕᎴᏗᏕ it read. No idea what it meant.

"Ow!!! Ok! Ok already..."

Apparently the tarsier and I had business inside.



This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

5/4/2021 10:28pm

"ᏂᏗᏦᏂᏗᎴᎦ! ᏗᏦᏠᏗᎴ ᏗᎴᎦᏗ;ᏗᎴᎦᏠ!"

"Mmmmmph. Uhmmmmph mmmph."

God I have no idea what these giant smelly soldiers are saying. I found some of their robes on the Moonbeam, and I barely fill them out, but nobody really seems to care. Maybe they just operate on smell. In which case these robes will get me a long way.

So I'm shuffling around on the streets, trying to figure out, well, where I am, where my friends are, and if I can even find my way back to the airfields, when I feel a little tug on my robes.

Instinctively, I cover my head. I hate getting hit.

Nothing happens. But there's another tiny tug.

I look down and there, amongst the garbage and squalor of the street, it the cutest little big eyed tarsier I've ever seen.

And it has a knife. Pointed directly at my---

"Ow!"

This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

2/8/2021 9:11pm

Test, test... come in @Captain Jack Fenris. @Strange Katz. Anybody there?

I don't think anybody can hear us on this frequency. Because they don't have radios here! Or cell phones. Or microwave ovens.

The Moonbeam was underway for, well, days now. I lost track. But I'm holed up in a broom closet and there isn't a porthole, and I haven't been able to sneak out on account of the especially smelly soldiers who have taken the ship over.

But the ship came to a halt, and they've seemed to disembarked.

If you're on the ship--and not captured and thrown in some dungeon somewhere--it seems like to coast is clear.

I'm leaving the broom closet to explore the ship an see where we are...

This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Moonbeam

11/10/2020 10:38pm

Psssst hey everybody. I have to whisper because I'm hiding the in the midshipman's broom closet. Actually, in the secret compartment in the midshipman's broom closet where he keeps his secret stuff. Did you know about this? Wow he's really got some stuff in here.

Anyway there were just too many of those very large and smelly soldiers boarding the ship so I hid. I am making my log post via personal assistant locket. Just like I gave you all in your gift bags at my last birthday.

Is there anyone there? I know they took @Spaz Skunk off the ship. In chains. That's when I hid! I mean, there was no way I could take them on. I'm just a radio operator! And they have armor. Or robes or something. And they don't take baths.

Oooo. I feel the ship moving. Can you feel that? They're taking the Moonbeam.

@Captain Jack Fenris are you receiving??!!!

This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.